Monday, August 30, 2010

Fitz and the Tantrums live

After seeing this clip, I've decided to buy a lotto ticket this week, and when I win a gazillion dollars, the first thing I'm gonna do is buy a plane ticket to Los Angeles and go and see Fitz and the Tantrums play live. These folk are phenomenally good. (Source)



Free download of their tune Moneygrabber...

Fitz and The Tantrums - Money Grabber by The Clothes Hangar

Tally ho!

Sounds interesting... "A discussion on the future of music distribution, particularly in relation to the possibilities of the online environment, will take place at the Adam Art Gallery in Wellington next Wednesday September 1 (6 - 8pm). Speakers include Roger Shepherd of Flying Nun Records, Annabel Youens and Jeff Mitchell from MusicHype, music critic Simon Sweetman and several other Wellington-based independent music agents. The event will workshop ideas and provide practical tools to consider the role of the record label now." Via NZ Musician.

Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University of Wellington
Gate 3, Kelburn Parade. Next to the Student Union Building
Wednesday 1 September 20106-8pm. Refreshments provided.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Guns of Brixton


The downside of affordable technology is mediocrity - Don Letts, from The Guardian - This Much I Know. Few excerpts...

Everything I learned about my culture came through reggae. The first time I heard about [political activist] Marcus Garvey was through music, not school.

I gave a lecture last week and the kids in the audience said, "Don, you sound like an angry old man." I said, "It's because you kids aren't bloody angry enough."

Hat tip to P-Money for the link via Twitter.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, Aug 28

Love Unlimited orchestra - King kong -Danny Krivit edit
Speedometer - Work it out - Beatfanatic remix
Shannon - Let the music play
Colman Borthers - She who dares - lounge mix
Seu Jorge and Almaz - The model
Augustus Pablo - Aquarius rock
Prince Jammy - Interboro dub
Brando - Conquering lion - Binghi riddim
Steven Stanley feat Skully - Dub version - Binghi riddim
Dark Angel - People come to
Jay Z at Studio One - Dirt off the shoulder
Jean Jacques Perrey and Luke Vibert - Ye olde beatbox
Sola rosa - Lady love - Bigga Bush version
Phillip Cohran and the artistic heritage ensemble - New frankiphone blues
Mulatu Astatke and the Heliocentrics - Cha cha
Pharoah roche - Sun of a beach - London mix
Fitz and the tantrums - Money grabber
Belleruche - 56% proof
Gil Scott Heron - Lady Day and John Coltrane
Johnny Hammond Smith - Fantasy
Reverso 68 - Piece together - Todd Terje mix
Shad - Yaa I get it
J Rawls - Lee Morgan story
Joi - Hurts sometimes
Piero Umiliani - Truck driver
Freddie Kruger - Something good

Skateboarders from hell!

Spotted this mad clip on legendary photographer Glen E Friedman's blog  - also go read his post on the mosque protesters in New York and how he and his friend Russell Simmons put up some controversial posters to counter them.... "This was warrented by all the insanity surrounding the proposed building of a new Muslim mosque about six blocks away from "Ground Zero" (never mind that there is already a mosque two blocks away from Ground Zero already, for 40 years)..."

Friday, August 27, 2010

Money grabber

Fitz and the Tantrums hail from Los Angeles, and serve up a healthy dose of Motown shimmer and soul swagger. Their debut album has just dropped, check this....



Get the album "Pickin' Up The Pieces" here: http://www.fitzandthetantrums.com/store
AND there's a free download of Moneygrabber on their site here. Check out some more info on the band (audio, videos) at Flavourwire.

Here's the band playing live...

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Happy birthday!

My blog turns seven today. Wow.

Open Souls get cheesy

The Open Souls drop a mad-ass 80s remix of their tune Dollars, off the latest album from this splendid kiwi combo, Standing In The Rain. Not a million miles away from the choice dance sequence in the film Boy....

Rock the casbah


Stumbled on this while looking for Todd Terje edits, as you do...  really nice edit of Rock the Casbah by The Clash, lotsa percussion and sax. Check it here

Bonus points - Mustapha dance (the original instrumental mix of Rock the Casbah)

Edit by Mr Krivit




Danny Krivit discussing the art of the edit. Can't wait to hear the new Strut comp from him - Edits By Mr. K Vol. 2 (out Sept 14) Track lists looks killer too.


Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Shad

Straight outta Canada, check this cat out... woah.



Free download of the above tune via RCD LBL here. And then there's the Oddisee remix too.
Shad Myspace. Check his official site too, nice blog styles. His album gets US release October 5, hopefully further afield too.

Check this 2nd video, hat tip to the Pharcyde...


Monday, August 23, 2010

Hey Jim. How do you spell New York?


I posted a clip from Jim Jarmusch's film Coffee and Cigarettes the other day - it features GZA, RZA and Bill Murray. Pitchfork have put up an interview with Jarmusch to coincide with him curating a day at All Tomorows Party NYC.

He talks about working with musicianas as actors in his films...

"... They were all very focused, and it was really a pleasure. I never had any trouble with any of them. Even Wu-Tang showed up on time. They were great. In fact, we were shooting Coffee and Cigarettes, and we were actually waiting for Bill Murray. He was only half an hour late. That was pretty amazing."


He also talks about his friendship with the late Rammellzee, and his upcoming projects  - such as a documentary on the Stooges... "There's no rush on it, but it's something that Iggy asked me to do. I'm co-writing an "opera." It won't be a traditional opera, but it'll be about the inventor Nikola Tesla, with the composer Phil Klein." He also has another film ready to shoot soon.

And my fave quote -  "There's a rule in my household that if Iggy is playing anywhere within 90 miles, we go". Great rule.


BONUS VIDEO: Pitchfork has footage of Jim Jarmusch, Bradford Cox, and No Age's Randy Randall playing Cortez the Killer.

Funky drummer!!!

Clyde “Funky Drummer” Stubblefield playing and being interviewed by Marley Marl (HT Diff Kitchen)  - DAMN! Funky ass shit.

Mark de Clive Lowe - live



MdCL and Sy Smith live in Washington DC last month. Kills it.
Hat tip to Potholes in my blog.

Protect ya neck, busker styles



Lewis Floyd Henry, London.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

The Making of OutKast's Aquemini


Track by track... read it here...


"By the time Aquemini was due to drop in the fall of 1998, no one knew what to expect from the-soon-to-be-iconic OutKast....

...Now that the Dirty South rules the world, it's easy to forget that Aquemini was the first Southern hip-hop album to earn the coveted five-mic rating from the former bible of the genre, The Source magazine.

At the time, R&B was dead, rap was on its last leg (R.I.P. Biggie and Pac), and Bill Clinton was in the Oval Office getting some head. But it mattered not. If post-soul polemics and pre-millennial angst had the world in a funk, Aquemini only made things funkier..."


snip... "Liberation" feat. Erykah Badu, Cee-Lo, Big Rube, Joi, Myrna "Skreechy Peach" Brown.

"... that [song featured] Erykah, Big Rube, Cee-Lo - again random occurrences. Dre's baby mama was Erykah Badu. I mean, damn, why wouldn't you put your baby mama on the record if she's Erykah Badu? It's not like he came to the studio and said, 'I want to put my girl on the song,' and this bitch work at the Varsity. She's Erykah Badu. Okay, do it."

The web is dead - long live the internet


Thats' the attention-grabbing headline from a Wired magazine story by Chris Anderson (author of The Long Tail) and Michael Wolff and it's delightfully provocative...

The Wired issue bases itself around that theme, and if you need an antidote to the waffle preached there, have a read of What's wrong with 'X is dead' from The Atlantic.

They observe that "The problem is Anderson's assumption about the way technology works. Serious technology scholars long ago discarded the idea that tech was just a series of increasingly awesomer things that successively displace each other. Australian historian Carroll Pursell, in reviewing Imperial College London professor David Edgerton's The Shock of the Old, summarized the academic thinking nicely:


An obsession with 'innovation' leads to a tidy timeline of progress, focusing on iconic machines, but an investigation of 'technology in use' reveals that some 'things' appear, disappear, and reappear...

And they close by noting that "Anderson's inevitable technological path [described in the article] happens to run perfectly through the domains (print/tablet) he controls at Wired, and away from the one that he doesn't." Funny that.

Best response I've seen tho was this one via Twitter from @ironicsans: “Just got my Web Is Dead issue of Wired. It came several days after I read all about it plus pro and con arguments and analyses. On the web."

80 blocks from Tiffanys



via Groovement: "Director Gary Weis’ 1979 documentary about the South Bronx and its gang culture, previously unavailable on DVD, will be released in the Autumn of 2010, the first time it has been offered to the public in decades, and will be accompanied by a handful of exciting bonus features.

Gary Weis was still working as a short film creator for Saturday Night Live when he came up with the idea for 80 Blocks after reading a Jon Bradshaw article, “Savage Skulls.” Published in a 1977 issue of Esquire Magazine, the piece centered on two gangs based in the South Bronx at the time — the Savage Nomads and the Savage Skulls. Weis became infatuated with the story and, soon after striking up a dialogue with Bradshaw, he convinced SNL producer Lorne Michaels to help him produce the film. Just two years later, in 1979, Weis and Bradshaw brought a camera crew to speak with members of both gangs, along with police officers, community activists, and civilians."

Indie record labels branch out

Photo: Uli Seit for The New York Times

This story in the New York Times talks about several indie labels taking on film distribution, both as small cinema runs and on DVD. The approach is similar to how the lables operate... "stay small and informal, know your audience, and put out stuff you like." Excerpt below...

"... This summer, Drag City, a Chicago label, distributed “Trash Humpers,” the fifth feature by Harmony Korine (the screenwriter of Larry Clark’s “Kids”). “We were very glad to take it on,” said Rian Murphy, Drag City’s sales director, “because it is something new and different, and we like that kind of thing, and because it doesn’t have to do with the record business right now, which is kind of in a bummer.” Drag City, which represents musicians like Joanna Newsom and Silver Jews, bought prints of the film and “made sure they were in constant motion” around the country.

“Trash Humpers” was “not held to the traditional channels for distributing a movie,” Mr. Murphy said, “because we don’t know what those are.”

He added: “If someone emails us, and they’re not a complete lunatic, or if they are a complete lunatic, and they have money and a screen....”

As a result, the film has played at a beer bar in Chattanooga, Tenn., a bookstore in Houston and the George Eastman House in Rochester, extending its life beyond the art house. (How many screens? Mr. Murphy didn’t know; the company barely even signs contracts with its artists. “It changes the atmosphere,” he said.) The “Trash Humpers” DVD is due in September.

RZA, GZA, Bill Murray

Love this movie. Coffee and Cigarettes, by Jim Jarmusch.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, Aug 21

Martin Brew - Sand stepping
Steinski - We'll be right back
Edie Harris - Turbulence
El Chicano - Viva tirado otra vez
Kabanjack - Dub to go - Ancient astronauts remix
Beats International - Invasion of the estate agents
People come to - Dark angel, Manasseh
Labelle - Messin with my mind
Joi - If I'm lucky I just might get picked up
Kendra Lou and the miracles - Everyday
Sleepwalker - Bortherhood - Mitsu the beats remix
Jose Feliciano - Golden lady
Patato and Totico - Dilo como yo - Antibalas remix
Eli Goularte - Meu samba - Nicola Conte remix
Daktaris - Upside down
Budos Band - Mark of the unnamed
Bronx river parkway - Agua con sol
Aural exciters - Spooks in space
Johnny Osbourne - Budy bye - Kenny Dope super dub mix
Red earth collective - Never give up - Manasseh remix
Richie Phoe - Eyes on the prize
U-Roy and Francois K - Rootsman
Sugar Minott - So we love it
Tommy McCook - Beirut

Rio arriba


Spied this over at Stink Inc, the blog of the esteemed Mr Stinky Jim - slipped by me, but it's well worth a read. Collection of interviews with South American cats from the excellent ZZK Records.

Chancha Via Circuito's album Rodante was one of my favourite albums of 2008. His label ZZK, described it as "a collection of cumbia songs ranging in nature from introspective (at the edge of a shaman-style trip) to festive, as in a crazy journey on a runaway train." It's a wonderfully percussive delight from start to finish, and his new album Rio Arriba is on the way very soon. Jim talked with DJ Nim, one of the founders of the ZZK label, along with Chancha Via Circuito, and Tremor.

snip....How is your music received by 'traditional' cumbia' musicians or cumbia villera musicians? Is there much or any dialogue between the older, more traditional artists and this new school? Your Jose Larralde remix for example is a track that bridges the gap between old and new for me.
“The reality is that there isn´t much dialogue between us. We know some artists who play cumbia villera and we respect each other, but I don´t know how it´s received by "traditional cumbia musicians". I met José Larralde once and gave him a CD with my remix, but I never received his feedback.”

Read the full interviews at Stink Inc - audio to check too!



Thursday, August 19, 2010

Fat Beats record stores to close

Via Crate kings and twitter: "Unfortunately, the breaking news of the day is that all Fat Beats retail locations (NY and LA) will close on September 4th and 18th respectively. Over the years Fat Beats has cultivated a reputation for being the centre of the universe for hip-hop vinyl and in-store performances."

Here's why Fat Beats is such a loss...

Walter Gibbons mixtape

Below, find a 70 minute promo mix from Disco Sonitus (Blackbeard's Toni Rossano & DJ D), made up of many of the tracks on the Jungle Music compilation of Walter Gibbons' mixes. Album drops this week.


Walter Gibbons Jungle Music Mix By Disco Sonitus by Strut Records on Mixcloud


Mix tracklist
1. TC James & The Fist O'Funk- Get Up On Your Feet (Keep Dancin') (Walter Gibbons Mix)
2. Harlequin Fours- Set It Off (US 12" Version)
3. Strafe- Set It Off (Walter Gibbons 12" Mix)
4. Gladys Knight- It's A Better Than Good Time (Walter Gibbons 12" Mix)
5. Jakki- Sun... Sun... Sun... (Walter Gibbons Original 12" Mix)
6. Sandy Mercer- You Are My Love (12" Version)
7. Arts & Crafts- I've Been Searching (Walter Gibbons 12" Mix)
8. Double Exposure- Ten Percent (Walter Gibbons 12" Mix)
9. Luv You Madly Orchestra- Moon Maiden (12" Mix)
10. Salsoul Orchestra- Magic Bird of Fire (Fire Bird Suite)
11. Dinosaur L- Go Bang (Walter Gibbons unreleased mix)
12: Arthur Russell- See Through (Walter Gibbons Original 12" Edit)
13: Stetsasonic- 4 Ever My Beat (Beat Bongo Mix)


DOWNLOAD - TC James & The Fist O'Funk- "Get Up On Your Feet" (Walter Gibbons Mix) [mediafire] [soundcloud]

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Take that!


From Digital Music News: The 10 Most Disastrous Music Industry Deals...

starts off with Terra Firma's acquisition of EMI, $4.7 billion (2007)... then there's Bertelsmann's investments in Napster, $100 million (2000-onward), and my fave...  

The Robbie Williams 360-Degree Deal, $160 million (2002): Williams loves being able to walk the streets of Los Angeles without getting recognized. EMI, which signed a pioneering deal, was somehow less thrilled by that freedom.

 Take that, EMI.

Read them in full here

Ebo Taylor


Here's the latest slice of African goodness from Strut, with a bit of background info...(Audio preview - check here)

"Strut link up with one of the true greats of Ghanaian music, Ebo Taylor, for his first internationally released new studio album in over 20 years. 
Following the wartime big band highlife pioneers like E.T. Mensah, Taylor became a major figure in Ghanaian highlife during the 1950s and ’60s as highlife exploded. Cutting his teeth with leading big bands like Stargazers and Broadway Dance Band, Ebo Taylor quickly rose through the ranks and became a prolific composer and frontman. Taylor moved to London in 1962 to study. “I had the Black Star Highlife Band sponsored by the Ghanaian High Commission, mainly comprising music students. We tried to incorporate jazz into highlife and progressed through talking and through jam sessions, trying to develop our skills and ideas.”
Back in Ghana, Taylor became an in-house arranger and producer for labels like Essiebons, working with other leading Ghanaian stars including C.K. Mann and Pat Thomas. “I was paid to write for them and we made some great records. People were trying new things – I always loved C.K. Mann’s Funky Highlife. It was fresh." Through the mid-‘70s and into the ‘80s, Taylor then recorded a number of solo projects, exploring unique fusions and borrowing elements from traditional Ghanaian sounds, Fela’s Afrobeat, jazz, soul and funk. Tracks like "Heaven" now stand as among the best Ghanaian Afrobeat of the era.
Interest in Ebo Taylor’s music has grown in recent years with a series of Ghanaian compilations on Soundway Records and Analog Africa and an unexpected sample as Usher lifted a riff from "Heaven" for his hit with Ludacris, "She Don’t Know."  A new Ebo Taylor album was a natural progression. “For new album, I wanted to advance the cause of Afrobeat music. Fela started it and we shouldn’t just abandon it. We should push it so it is a standard form of music.“  
The result is a firing new set backed by Dutch Berlin-based band Afrobeat Academy and involves members of Poets Of Rhythm. Tracks include new versions of Taylor classics "Victory" and "Love And Death" and a selection of new compositions including "Kwame," celebrating Ghana’s late, lamented leader Kwame Nkrumah.
Ebo Taylor's Love And Death will be released in CD / 2LP / digital formats. He will be touring with Afrobeat Academy beginning in December 2010."

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Favela on Blast film screening


Favela On Blast - Official Trailer from Mad Decent on Vimeo.

As part of the "ThisCulture" film series we are proud to present the NZ premiere of "Favela on Blast" - this Wednesday night at Khuja Lounge.

Favela on Blast is the directorial film debut from Grammy-nominated DJ and producer, Diplo, and his partner Leandro HBL. For 20 years, a subculture has emerged under society's radar. Favela On Blast tells the stories of sex, love, poverty and pride for Rio's marginalized people. They have their own language, style and heroes. It's a music that's... fast, heavy and violent like the city itself. This film is a flash of a few lives of charismatic people that relate to the funk music and a retelling of the subculture itself.

In an unlikely turn of events since pre-production of this film started, baile funk fought its way out of the favela's, no holds barred. As soon as it reached the ears of music makers and booty shakers around the globe, dots got connected, cables got plugged and the movement just snowballed out of control.

The culture surrounding the favelas of Rio De Janeiro has been documented before, yet here a unique view is presented to the audience were the camera emerges from the funk balls to give an unseen look into an energetic, underground music scene so powerful it couldn't be ignored.

August 18th - Khuja Lounge - 8pm,  $5 entry - DJ support from El Gato Negro

http://www.thisculture.com for more info.

Monday, August 16, 2010

The cocktail party


Frank Liew wrote a great piece over at Hypebeast on the whole iPhone vs Android vs Blackberry phone debate. He's been asking a lot of people which one they like and why, and has come up with a nifty theory on the choices  - the cocktail party. Read below...

"... after a month or so of digesting information from supporters in all camps, I’ve decided to combine all this information and put forward my answer to this question in a simple analogy, that I hope everyone can understand.

Imagine you’re at a cocktail party.

There’s a guy who seems to be the centre of attention and has a harem of girls (including the one you’ve been eyeing up all night) giggling at his somewhat bland jokes and stories of his exploits as a sometimes-DJ or part-time model. You may not necessary like this guy, but can’t help but admire his “pulling power”, and quietly wonder to yourself how he does it, at the same time ridiculing him to your friends. You don’t know how he does it, but you can see the results in front of you, but you still wonder if it’s for real or if it’s all for show. This guy is an iPhone.

There’s a guy who sits quietly in the corner dressed in a Saville Row bespoke suit and sporting a 40′s IWC Pilot with a bunch of fellow male beatnik admirers in some strange fete-du-sausage whilst nursing a nice 25yo Glenmorangie single malt on the rocks. He brings up intellectual discussion, enjoys obscure conversation topics, likes to crack the odd dirty joke then and again to remind you that he’s on your level, and has a certain aura around him that you can’t seem to pinpoint, but you are drawn to. You wonder why he’s dressed the way he is, given that not many people seem that interested. This guy is a HTC Android powered phone.

There’s a guy who looks rather serious, in a corner with little to no friends and just sits there staring at his phone all night whilst typing away feverishly on the keyboard, trying to maintain a real life conversation with someone at the same time but failing miserably. This guy is all about getting shit done. This person is somewhat oblivious to his surroundings, and always ends up joining a conversation late, making it rather awkward, but he has rather strong opinions and prides himself on telling people when he gets something done, no matter how mundane. This guy is a Blackberry.

Which one do you want to be? There’s your answer."


Frank uses a Blackberry.

Non picnic


Back in 1988, a rather exciting festival was due to happen, with a lineup that included Bob Geldof, James Brown, Nona Hendryx, Roy Orbison and more. It was called the Neon Picnic and it collapsed in spectacular fashion a few days before it was due to take place. Writer Chris Bourke has a piece on his blog about it, lifted from a story he wrote at the time for Rip It Up. It's a great read. (Above photo from Chris's blog)


"In the last few days before the Neon Picnic was scheduled to start, people were waiting. For money.

International acts such as Los Lobos and Nona Hendryx were waiting for their plane tickets or advance fees; lighting and sound companies for their payments before they would continue work. Many others waited to be paid for work already done.
The Raglan County Council waited for toilets to be put on site, while the portaloo hire company waited for their cash.

The Picnic organisers were waiting for last-minute financial packages to come through and sort it all out." Read it in full here.

ADDED Simon Grigg has his own memories of the Neon Picnic - he did get to see one of the acts...

Sunday, August 15, 2010

NY blues


Via Flavourpill Daily Dose: "Christopher Walken played him in the movie Basquiat, but the creative life of Marc H. Miller transcends that singular moment via his website, 98 Bowery.

"In late-'60s downtown NYC, Miller blossomed as an artist, curator, journalist, and publisher. After organizing the very first punk art exhibition in 1978, he migrated to Amsterdam and shot Polaroid portraits in the red-light district, before returning to the Bowery to make videos, write a column, and organize shows — a lifestyle that's now amusingly and thoroughly documented online.

Explore the 98 Bowery site, watch videos of Miller selling Polaroids in Amsterdam’s red-light district bars, check out the making of a paparazzi portrait of Screw magazine publisher Al Goldstein from the artist’s Vimeo archive, and read an article about his controversial video interview with Jean-Michel Basquiat in Interview magazine."

Photo: The Ramones autograph Curt Hoppe’s painting “Bettie & the Ramones".
Check more photos here

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Mo better blues


From Wax Poetics - "Remember our interview with Spike Lee in Issue 38? The following is an unpublished chunk from that piece.


Originally, Mo’ Better Blues was entitled A Love Supreme. Why did you change the title?


"Alice Coltrane! [laughs] I was in contact with her. She read the script and thought there was too much profanity in the film, and she preferred that we not use that title, but she would still let us use the song. The recording was much more important than the title.


Was Mo’ Better Blues the first instance of the media accusing you of anti-Semitism? With the portrayal of the two Jewish club owners?


The club owners were Moe and Josh Flatbush, played by John and Nick Turturro. This was something that blindsided me completely. There was a big brouhaha, and at that time, my lawyer, who is deceased and was Jewish, said, “Spike, if you want to continue to work in this industry, you have to get rid of this anti-Semitic label.” His name was Arthur Klein, and he suggested that I write an op-ed piece for The New York Times saying, “I’m not anti-Semitic.” I took his advice; I did that. They were really trying to lower the hammer. You never felt somebody on your ass until you have the JDL, B’nai B’rith, and whoever else on your ass with the anti-Semitic thing. They could put you on lockdown."

More Spike here.  He also goes into the Oscars snub of Malcolm X, and his beef with Clint Eastwood over his Iwo Jima movies, and their lack of black soldiers.He's a straight talker.

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, Aug 14

Mophono's halftone society  -Sinicisism - Natural self remix
Mulatu Astatke -Yerkermo sew
Quantic - Portada del Mar
Prince Fatty - Gin and juice
Centry meets the music family - The outlaw
Richie Phoe - Heartical behaviour
Sola rosa - Lady love - Richie Phoe remix
Ticklah - Scratch to win
Dawn Penn w Steely and Clevie - No no no
Kode9 - You don't wash dub
Cooly G - Love dub
Cesaria Evora - Angola  - Get down dub by Pepe Bradock
Chancha via curcuito - Dancehall
Colman brothers - She who dares - lounge mix
Style council - Money go round
Bobby Byrd - Hot pants... I'm coming
Gary Byrd - The crown
The controllers - Hello - Simon S re-edit
Fat Freddys Drop - Hope - Mykl vs Soy Sos dub
Tony Allen - Ole - Moritz von Oswald remix
Mayer Hawthorne - The ills
Manu Dibango - Soul fiesta
Miriam Makeba - Ibande
Neil Cowley trio - Pinball number count
Oddisee - Chocolate city dreaming
Staple singers - This old town (People in this town)
The Emotions - Blind alley
Sons of Slum - Right on
Jean Knight - Carry on

Favela on Blast film screening


Favela On Blast - Official Trailer from Mad Decent on Vimeo.

As part of the "ThisCulture" film series we are proud to present the NZ premiere of "Favela on Blast" - this Wednesday night at Khuja Lounge.

Favela on Blast is the directorial film debut from Grammy-nominated DJ and producer, Diplo, and his partner Leandro HBL. For 20 years, a subculture has emerged under society's radar. Favela On Blast tells the stories of sex, love, poverty and pride for Rio's marginalized people. They have their own language, style and heroes. It's a music that's... fast, heavy and violent like the city itself. This film is a flash of a few lives of charismatic people that relate to the funk music and a retelling of the subculture itself.

In an unlikely turn of events since pre-production of this film started, baile funk fought its way out of the favela's, no holds barred. As soon as it reached the ears of music makers and booty shakers around the globe, dots got connected, cables got plugged and the movement just snowballed out of control.

The culture surrounding the favelas of Rio De Janeiro has been documented before, yet here a unique view is presented to the audience were the camera emerges from the funk balls to give an unseen look into an energetic, underground music scene so powerful it couldn't be ignored.

August 18th - Khuja Lounge - 8pm,  $5 entry - DJ support from El Gato Negro

http://www.thisculture.com for more info.

Ace of spades

Haydamaky hail from Ukraine, and here's their delightful take on Motorhead's Ace of Spades, with footage shot on their current US tour. Punk/ska/horns and accordian. Mental. (Hat tip to Trevor R).

Friday, August 13, 2010

21st

After 21 years, indie label Merge Records have clocked up their first ever number one album on the US charts.  In the label's history they've had 4 top ten chart successes  - 3 this year (Spoon, She and Him, Arcade Fire). The chart topper is the new album from Arcade Fire, which sold 156,000 copies in its opening week and get this - 97,000 of those copies were digital albums.

Label co-founder Laura Ballance says "The whole chart thing is kind of like sports," she said Wednesday. "The need to have a ranking is kind of meaningless. I’m more like, ‘It did good? That’s great.’ " Read more: LA Times article

The record players


Oh, a new book from the authors of Last night a DJ saved my life, you say? Bound to be essential reading. Out August 30. Download a preview pdf here.

"The story of dance music told by the people who made it happen. Bill and Frank come correct with in-depth interviews with almost 50 of history's most significant DJs, largely previously unpublished. Like the ones you've read on DJhistory, these are intriguing meetings – honest and revealing portraits, funny too. Plus memorabilia, discographies and great photos of all the DJs as young firebrands."

Black Dynamite vs Storm troopers

Adrian Younge and the Black Dynamite Sound Orchestra played live during Comic Con. They ended up playing for some Stormtroopers, Tough crowd. Hat tip: Wax Poetics.

Attention vinyl junkies...

RECORD COLLECTORS FAIR THIS SATURDAY AUGUST 14...

At new venue --- FREEMAN'S BAY HALL -- Hepburn St, Ponsonby.
The Auckland Record Collectors Fair takes place this Saturday August 14 at a new inner city venue, the Freeman¹s Bay Hall, corner of Wellington and Hepburn Streets, Ponsonby.

Stalls include vintage New Zealand vinyl and New Vinyl Imports and foreign, 60s, rare, dance, soul, rock, bargain etc vinyl. AND Murray Camick will be there selling more funk and soul vinyl. The event also has stalls selling vinyl turntables, styli and cartridges.

The fair runs from 10am to 3pm. There is a $4 entry fee.

.... Because you need more records. Right?

RIP Phelps "Catfish"Collins

Phelps "Catfish" Collins has died aged 66 after a battle with cancer. BBC News reports that "The Cincinnati-based musician was part of the funk scene in the late 1960s and early 1970. He played with James Brown before joining Parliament and Funkadelic.

The older brother of Bootsy Collins, the guitarist's death on Friday was reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer. The report described him as "a jovial guitar player with a huge smile".

Catfish played on James Brown's 1970 classic Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine.

"My world will never be the same without him," Bootsy Collins told Rolling Stone. "Be happy for him, he certainly is now and always has been the happiest young fellow I ever met on this planet."
Collins' death comes less than two months after that of Funkadelic guitarist Gary Shider, who died in June."

Thursday, August 12, 2010

CBGBs

But wait, there's more. A film called "Blitzkreig Bop!"with a priceless voiceover - "They've been called brilliant, they've been called disgusting, but no-one ever forgets this act..." Features the Ramones, Blondie, Dead Boys, and some lame-ass rock critics talking utter bollocks.... The sound is outta sync with the pics, so just deal with it...

Part 1, 3 other parts too...


BLITZKRIEG BOP: CBGBS DOCUMENTARY 1 OF 4
Uploaded by Top-Notch112. - News videos from around the world.

New York Dolls 73

Stumbled across this while looking for old video of the Ramones shot at CBGBS - some clever fella who has a ton of black and white video footage of the New York Dolls, some of them playing live, in 1973.

Then there's the one below, of the band at a photo shoot goofing around, and one of them out in LA, at a joke shop, then Jerry gets a haircut. Delightfully random snapshot of a long lost moment.

Hat tip to Markwasthere (Youtube channel - for more NY Dolls vids)







Wednesday, August 11, 2010

P-Money 2001



Spied this great video from back in 2001 via GeorgeFM- it's P-Money dropping his routine at the World DMC Champs - he came third equal that year  (with DJ Kentaro). I interviewed P-Money that year for NZ Musician magazine. Here's the interview below.

The thing I remember from this interview was, even tho P-Money had some success and made it to several overseas DJ battles and was going places, he was talking about how his overseas experiences made him realise that the local hiphop scene had to step up its game - he wasn't just in it for himself. That's cool.



Scratch and win
by Peter McLennan (originally published in NZ Musician magazine February 2001)

P-Money is one of our nation's finest hip hop DJs - if you are looking for proof, he has won the New Zealand ITF (International Turntablist Federation) DJ Championship an unprecedented two years in a row.

An expert scratch DJ, P-Money has recently starting to make his presence felt as a producer of his own beats, working with MCs Ill Semantics, Four Corners, and on Che Fu's next album. He's been involved with bFM's hugely popular 'Trueschool Hip Hop Show', alongside well respected DJs DLT and Sir-Vere for several years, and currently hosts the show. He's a humble guy, who works hard to be the best he can be. Step up, P-Money!

"It was DLT who started referring to me as Money, taking the piss, cos I'd do tricks like Cash Money. I was looking for a DJ name and I thought, 'Yeah, that'll do'."

DJing took hold of Pete Wadams at a young age.

"I've been practising my skills since I was about 12. That was when I first attempted a scratch. I got a turntable when I was 14, and then I got a decent set-up when I was 17. I've been seriously DJing as a career for the last three years - since I was about 19.

"The first gear I used was a Sony mini-system my dad had, that had a turntable on the top, and I would just scratch with that, using the switch between Phono and Auxiliary to cut out the sound. So I had two fingers on the switches and cut the sound that way, moving the record back and forth to see what happened. I thought 'This sounds really cool!'.

"I discovered scratching from the music I was listening to, which was hip hop music, like Run DMC. Jam Master Jay was their DJ. On the video for Walk This Way, there's him on turntables cutting the record at the start and you can see and hear what he's doing. I thought, 'That looks cool, I want to put my hand on the record and see if I can make that noise'.

"The Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff had this song Parents Just Don't Understand, it was a really corny song. It was the first record I ever owned. I went to the record shop with my dad and he got it for me. I got tired of it in about five minutes, and then one day I played the other side - I didn't even know there was another side of a record! I was pretty young, must've been about nine.

"I flipped it over, and there's a track called Live at Union Square 1986, and it's the intro to their live show. It's Will Smith, the Fresh Prince, and he goes 'Check out my DJ, he's gonna do some amazing new thing you've never seen', and it was the transformer scratch. There's this record called 'Dance to the Drummer's Beat' by Herman Kelly & Life, and there's a break down at the start of it, and he (Jazzy Jeff) just starts turning the sound on and off, the transformer scratch - dah, dah-dah, dah - and it just freaked me out, it was amazing! I was thinking 'How do you make that noise?'.

"I used to scratch with that record (Live at Union Square), cos I didn't know what the original sound was, 'til a few years later, and then I realised that it was just turning the record on and off, and I was blown away by that."

A lot more of what he has learned as a DJ came from experimenting.

"You just sit down and study a record, I think any musician is the same. The turntable as an instrument is only coming into its own now - and you really can play the turntable as an instrument - it's being proven more and more with each new guy that I see. At the ITF finals, there was this guy called A-Trak (the 1999 and 2000 ITF World Champ), he's just turned 19, and he's doing amazing things. He's a full-on musician, he just freaks me out. I can't achieve what he's achieving at the moment, and he's three years younger than me - but I'm going to get there!"

P-Money got started in DJ battles at the first local ITF DJ championship, in 1997.

"I heard about it through the 'Trueschool Hip Hop Show' on bFM. I was a big fan, always used to listen to the show, and I was like 'A DJ competition? Wow!'.

"A DJ battle is a competition where DJs scratch and do tricks. They get a chance to demonstrate their stuff in the opening routines, then there's two DJs set-up on stage, and they take turns for 90 seconds each, and you've got to come up with whatever you can in that time, then the other DJ will respond and try and outdo what you've done. Then you get one more chance, and they reply, and the winner advances to the next round. It's an elimination process, 'til there's one guy left. We have qualifiers in the regions, in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. There was about 50 DJs entered last year, and they all battled, and that was great, and then the winner goes overseas - and that was me!"

So how do you prepare for a DJ battle? Practice, practice, practice, advises P-Money.

"You could say I'm always preparing, because whenever I'm practising, I'm looking for new things. There are records called 'Battle Breaks' that have short stabs of sounds and really big raucous beats you can use. But I often choose to use songs that are already out there, mostly rap songs, but I've used Peking Man before - I use whatever I can find. It's like sampling. Say you want to sample one piece of music and there are all these different sounds in there, you might end up taking five different bits and rearranging them into a new track - that's exactly what I do on turntables, but I do it live, in real time, and that's where the challenge lies."

P-Money remembers that first DJ battle in '97 with a certain degree of bemusement.

"When I look back on it, it's hilarious, cos I was shocking! It was just a confidence building thing more than anything."

He placed fourth but was back the following year, feeling more confident.
"I thought 'Yeah, I'm gonna win this, I'm better than everyone else'. I had this real attitude, cos I thought that's the way you win."

Unfortunately this confidence didn't prepare him for getting knocked out in the first round.

"I went home and thought 'Why did I lose? Shucks man, that sucks'. I was going to give up battling, it was too much time and effort."

But in 1999 he gave it one more shot: "I went in the Wellington Invitational Battle competition and won the first round, and I was thinking 'Yeah!'. Next round I did my Rakim routine, my most well-rehearsed routine, done it a million times - and I messed it up! I felt really bad. I went out the back and thought 'Oh well, I definitely lost that', but then I won! I was like 'This is the craziest game in the world; when you think you're gonna win, you lose, and when you think you're gonna lose, you win!'. Then I went to the next round, the finals, and I thought 'Well, I'll just leave it up to God or whoever', you know? I'll just do my thing and be humble, and hopefully it'll be good enough, and they'll like it - and I won! So I kept that attitude.

"The whole experience of DJ battles has, in a weird way, shaped me as a person, like 'Stop thinking you're a hot shot, you're not that good', cos everyone's got to practice.'"

Winning the local ITF champs has given P-Money the opportunity to foot it on the world stage amongst the best of his peers and take in some amazing sights. In November last year the world finals were held in Los Angeles where he placed eighth. The year before in Hawaii he came in fifth out of the dozen DJs representing the best of almost as many countries - including UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan, Belgium and Australia.

"In LA the talent on stage was the best I've ever seen, seriously. They were just so good. There were these guys doing crazy, musical patterns, like taking a regular hip hop record which is in 4/4 and about 90 bpm, like I'm used to, and slowing it down to 3/4, a waltz - just doing a whole new arrangement of the song, and changing the pitch of the instruments so it's a new melody too! It's hard to explain without witnessing it. Those dudes are just beyond me."

DJ Sir-Vere (Phil Bell), organiser of the local ITF's, went with P-Money to both ITF World DJ Finals. He recalls P-Money's first time up on the world stage, in Hawaii in 1999. "The playing field at that was a bit more even, whereas this last year the standard was a lot higher. It's getting way more competitive. The standard was incredible this year at the Hollywood Palace in LA. The winner A-Trak could've won it lying down!

"This year, the world took three steps forward, and we took one. I think that even though Money didn't make the battle rounds, maybe that's where he was ranked, you know? He totally got cheated out of seventh in LA."

P-Money typically sees a challenge: "People would consider me to be quite developed technically, quite skilled compared to the average DJ here, then I go over to the world champs and I'm like that guy at the bottom again. We have to pick up our game here quite a bit. I'm trying to take it to the world, trying to be on that level and doing production for international artists overseas. So I want to take it there, but I don't want to be the only one!"

This DJ isn't just into playing other people's music - oh no. He's got designs on making music too.

"I knew how hip hop groups worked; there's a rapper, and there's a DJ. So, I just assumed the DJ must create all the beats as well, so I thought 'I need to do that'."

Searching through music magazines in the early '90s trying to find out what DJs used to make music, he discovered drum machines.

"I got a Boss Dr Rhythm DR660 drum machine, after much persuasion of my father - 'Dad, I want a drum machine for Christmas!' It was that and my birthday present and half my own money. That was in my last year of high school. I was fully into making beats and I had a good turntable set-up by then."

P-Money left school, got a job in a fish and chip shop, and saved up to buy a Tascam 07 four-track. He also had a toy keyboard from when he was a kid.

"By combining those elements, I made my first tracks. I started off with a loop of some static on the end of a 45, and I attempted to sync my drum machine to the tempo of the static, cos I didn't like the drum machine sound, it was too stale. I needed something else so I added the static. Then I played some real bad chords on my toy keyboard and layered some scratches - it was a big, layered mess of stuff.

"I'd do loops on turntables, cos I didn't have a sampler, so I'd have two copies of a record, and just start it, run it for a bar, then just repeat on the other turntable."

His next purchase was a Roland MS1 Sampler.

"Once I started sampling stuff, then I really started to hear the records I'd been listening to for many years, like Public Enemy and De La Soul and all that. I started to pick apart the production. I was learning how to get good at scratching and DJing and learning production techniques, all at the same time."

He's recently made the leap to an Akai MPC 2000 XL sampler.

"For the last two years people have been starting to say that the beats I have been making are really good. I started working with Che Fu, cos he was interested from a DJ point of view, cos he's also into DJing. He liked my beats, so we've been doing some stuff. I joined Che's band as DJ and we're working on more demos for his next album."

He's also recorded some of his own tunes, with Four Corners from Hamilton and Ill Semantics from Auckland.

"We recorded them at Studio Six in Papakura, which is just a bedroom set-up, but it's pretty flash, and put down the vocals. I put them out there just to test the waters, and people loved it, it was number one on the bFM Top 10 for four weeks. That's more motivation to pursue that. Hopefully they'll get released, if someone's reading this, get in touch! It's the same old story with everyone - you need some cash behind it to get it out there. So, that's that long assed story!"

Let's ask an expert - what makes a good hip hop DJ?

"You've got to have good records and you've got to be technically skilled and understand music. You've got to understand timing in songs. Like, if you're doing a mix of two songs, you've got to understand how many bars there are and how many beats there are to a bar and all that. You don't have to be able to read music and know all the technical terms, you've just got to be able to feel it. I didn't know what a bar was, I knew how the music went, I was like 'Ah, this many loops', I had different words!

"There are heaps of things as far as turntable set-up that you need to be aware of. You have your record, and it sits on the platter, between the record and the platter there's a thing called a slip mat, and if it's not spinning back easily when you're scratching, you can experiment with different types of plastic under the slip mat, like from inside record sleeves. I also have my turntables set up vertically, which is battle style, with the arm the furthest away from you. That's so when you're going from one turntable to the other you're not hitting the arm. I use a Vestax Pro 07 mixer, Shure M44-7 cartridges, and Technics SL1200 turntables."

What if you're an absolute beginner?

"If you're starting out, I'd say get whatever you can get your hands on. I mean, a belt drive is cool, if you're 12, 13, and you've never scratched before and want to get into it. If you're already at that stage, then I'd say don't mess around with anything other than a pair of SL1200s. It's a big step up, but you'll know if you're going to keep doing it so you'll know if it's a waste of money or not. Just save up and buy yourself a decent set of turntables, and there'll be no looking back after that. I went through about five belt drives. I saved up and bought a pair of 1200s. You can buy one, and then that'll be enough motivation to buy the other one. You can get them secondhand too."

Good advice - on the money, every time.


P-Money's Top 5 Records (in no particular order)

Gang Starr - Moment of Truth
Bob James - Nautilus
Public Enemy - Fear of A Black Planet
Wu Tang Clan - Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers)
Jeru the Damaja - The Sun Rises in the East

Christoph El Truento


Christoph El Truento is a talented young chap who I know as a fellow BaseFM DJ. He's about to drop a brand new EP as a producer, and has kindly sent out a track for you to listen to and download, if you fancy.

Introducing EP01, a 5 track EP of experimental beats, soul and future funk created throughout the first half of 2010. The EP will be released in digital format on iTunes and for free on Bandcamp for a limited time, out October 5.

zSHARE - Christoph El Truento - She Just Dont Know.mp3 (click on link for  audio preview)


For more El Truento goodness, check out the Hip Drop's album (from earlier this year) of local beat producers here - also includes tracks from Mara TK (Electric wire hustle), Alphabethead, Skylab, Scratch22 (remixing the Mint Chicks) and more.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Sola Rosa remixes


Sola Rosa have just dropped a brand new album, a collection of remixes of their latest album, Get It Together. Remixers include The Nextmen, DJ Vadim, Yes King, J-Star, Biggabush, TM Juke, Beatfanatic, Alister Johnson, Hermitude, Thomas Blondet, Richie Phoe and more. Best of all, if you head over to Sola Rosa's website, you can download the DJ Vadim remix for free. Preview below, or get it here. You can preview the other mixes there too.

<a href="http://music.solarosa.com/track/turn-around-ft-iva-lamkum-dj-vadim-remix">Turn Around Ft. Iva Lamkum (DJ Vadim Remix) by Sola Rosa</a>


If you buy the CD, you get 15 remixes, or if you buy the digital version at Bandcamp, you get an extra 5 remixes, including mixes from Barkin Soul and Benny Tones. Oh, and the instrumentals of all the remixes are over at Bandcamp too. Nice one.

Saturday, August 07, 2010

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, Aug 7

Mr Chop - Shut em down
Lyn Collins - Think - Simon S re-edit
Billy Watkins - The ice man
Daddy Cleanhead  -Something goin on in my room
Budos band - Chicago falcon - Washington Sq Lads remix
Kabanjak - Dub to go - Ancient astronauts remix
Manu Chao - A cosa - Prince fatty edit
Jah Batta - I don't want to wait
Jah Wobble - L1
Manasseh  - Western world version
The Beat - Twist and crawl
Mos dub - Johnny too beef
Lee Scratch Perry - Train to Doomsville
Rhythm and sound w Sugar Minott - Let jah love come
Hugh Masekela - Don't go lose it baby
Gwen Guthrie - Padlock - Larry Levan mix
Crown heights affair - Say a prayer for two
Nona Simone - Taking care of business - Pilooski edit
Kormac - People rising
Mishkin and Anna Mystic -Living trouble
Big youth - Feed a nation
The Resonators  -Sweet love affair/Sweet dub affair
Nacao zumbi - Organ de belle
Orgone - I get lifted
Pointer sisters - There's love in them there hills
Destronauts - Flight of the dead grizzly - Smoke machine dub mix
Prince Jammy - 42nd st dub

Friday, August 06, 2010

Talk about Walter

Walter Gibbons remembered by Danny Krivit & Tony Smith.... they talk about Walter's influence being perhaps even bigger than Tom Moulton, why the original producers were salty about Walter's mixes, and why hip-hop legends like Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa looked up to Walter...




Jungle Music, Strut's retrospective of Walter's music, will be out August 17th.If you missed it, download a track from the album below:
TC James & The Fist O'Funk- "Get Up On Your Feet" (Walter Gibbons Mix) [mediafire] [soundcloud]

Destronauts are dub

Destronauts are a Brooklyn-based duo. From their bio: "The duo consists of American vocalist/guitarist/producer Chadwick Shao and Argentinean singer/actress Mimi Eayrs. They were formed in Brooklyn, New York in the Summer of 2009. Chadwick has been a rhythm guitarist, a drum and bass DJ in the DC electronic-dance music scene, and a producer. Chadwick and Mimi Eayrs met by chance while singing karaoke. Their first EP, 3 Moons, is the result of six months of writing and recording together in his home studio, and was remixed and engineered at Studio G Brooklyn. 3 Moons debuted in February 2010."

Anyways,  a fellow Brooklynite who works under the name Smoke Machine sent me this great dubby remix he'd done of one of their tracks, and you can download it for free. It's pretty damn tasty.

<a href="http://smokemachine.bandcamp.com/track/flight-of-the-dead-grizzly-smoke-machine-dub">Flight Of The Dead Grizzly (Smoke Machine Dub) by Smoke Machine</a>

Thursday, August 05, 2010

Next Stop, Soweto... jazz

 
DOWNLOAD Dennis Mpale- "Orlando" (mediafire) (soundcloud)
From: Next Stop ... Soweto Vol. 3 (August 3rd, Strut)
Giants, Ministers and Makers: Jazz In South Africa 1963 - 1984  

The first two installments of this series have featured some incredible music... looking forward to hearing more...
 
One of the regular players on the South African jazz scene splitting time between Cape Town and Johannesburg, Dennis Mpale plays trumpet in several of the outfits featured on Next Stop... Soweto Vol. 3. "Orlando" comes from an album under his own name, and is a tribute to his township. Documenting the vibrant South African jazz scene of the 50s, 60, & 70s, the final volume of the Next Stop... Soweto series comes out August 3rd on Strut.

El-P vs Bieber


 
El-P talks about his new instrumental album in an interview with the LA Times here... he's out there previewing his new album of instrumentals at legendary LA clubnight the Low End Theory, home to Gaslamp Killer, Flying Lotus and more.

" ...his most impressive achievement may have come last month, when a Twitter in-joke with XLR8R magazine forced him to try his hand at remixing Justin Bieber’s “Baby.” Splicing in a sample of Paul McCartney and Wings'  “Live and Let Die,” and tarring and feathering Bieber’s teen pop with heavy dubstep rhythms, El-P set it loose onto the internet."

They've got the tune for download at the bottom of the interview too. Listen at your own risk.

"Rapper, producer and Def Jux founder El-P knows how to get to parts of the brain others can't. As a solo artist and frontman for seminal hip-hop group Company Flow or producer of Cannibal Ox, Cage, Mr. Lif, Aesop Rock, NIN, Beck, The Mars Volta (and many, many more), an El-P production can drive you to hide underneath the bed, punch a wall and nod your head all at the same time. Which brings us to Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3" (out August 3).

Grab some preview mp3s below...
Album Preview Trailer (YouTube)
El-P- "Meanstreak" (In 3 Parts) (mediafire)
El-P- "Whores: The Movie" (mediafire)